After Rough Trip Home to Italy, Lorenzo Borgomeo Heads into XFC 20 Main Event

Following a stretch where he lost three of four fights, Italian middleweight Lorenzo “Borg” Borgomeo rebounded to win four of his next five fights.

Borgomeo credits his success to taking a couple years off to heal up from injuries and focus on coaching in Colorado and his native Italy. But perhaps the biggest improvement he made was changing his mindset.

“When I go to fight I put less emotion into it. It’s no longer a win or die situation,” said Borgomeo. “When I was younger, I used to think like that, so every fight was the fight of my life. Right now, it’s not really that, I do it now because I want to and I like to do it.

“I used to really put too much pressure on myself in every training situation and in every fight. I think that’s why I had so many injuries in the gym. I used to push myself mentally and physically to the limit every day. It just doesn’t work out (doing) that.”

Borgomeo’s only loss in his last five fights came this past April in Milan, Italy, where he fought under circumstances that most fighters in the current era of regulated MMA couldn’t imagine.

“I know it’s difficult for American fighters to understand, but we don’t have a commission, so nobody knows about the refs, nobody really cares about the weight and the rules change the day of the fight,” he said. “It’s very difficult fights to take if you care about your record, especially if you’re fighting in your opponent’s home town, which was my case.

“I still think when I watch the fight, I think it was a bad fight. I fought very badly, but I didn’t lose, so I don’t consider it a loss.”

Borgomeo will get a chance to make things right when he returns to the States to headline XFC 20 on Sept. 28 in Knoxville, Tenn., live on AXS TV, against Eric Reynolds.

“I think Eric has a lot of skills and wants to win a lot, is a very aggressive fighter and never gives up,” Borgomeo told MMAWeekly.com. “I think that to win the fight, it’s going to be who wants it the most. I need to win the fight and prove to him and myself that I want to win the most.

“I don’t think he’s a better striker or wrestler than me or his conditioning is better than mine. I think overall I’m a better than him, but I know he has heavy hands and has good defense on the ground.”

Considering how difficult he made things on himself in the past, Borgomeo plans to take things as they come now.

“After everything I’ve been through in life, right now I would to like to not make the mistake I did in the past and just go one fight at a time and most of everything just enjoy the journey,” he said. “I really like the place where I am, I like the training and I like fighting, but I can’t think too much about the future so I don’t do the same mistake again.

“I learned that sometimes you do everything you’re supposed to do, but you just lose; it’s just the way it is. If it becomes it a win or die situation and you lose, you’re going to be in trouble. If you just think about fighting, your life will be too rough.”